Free Outdoor Movies All Summer at Liberty Station

Let me begin on a note of disclosure and shameless self-promotion. The following Summer Movie Mania screenings at Liberty Station are being presented by CommCinema.com, an outdoor movie company I work for. While the latter number sure would be nice, whether the show draws one patron or 500, there is nothing extra in it for me as far as bolstering attendance is concerned.

"If you can paint, I can caulk," or something like that.

I will be your projectionist for the series, which kicks off this Saturday night with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in Leo McCarey’s finespun (and frequently very funny) romantic tearjerker, An Affair to Remember. After all the recent fuses blown over improper aspect ratios and soft focus presentation in multiplexes, you can best be assured the image on screen will be sharper than the pleats in Cary’s slacks.

The fun begins at dusk (approximately 8:20 p.m.) and, true to my custom, each show will commence with a vintage cartoon and short, always the spice of the program. The memorable Affair will screen at the Wine Steals and Sail Ho Golf Course where, try as I might, I could not convince them to show Paramount’s The Caddy or Follow the Sun.

The first thing people ask when I tell them about the series is, “Will you be programming it?” A look at the rest of the titles should quickly answer that question.

In addition to projecting, I will have a few opening remarks to say about An Affair to Remember. Please feel free to come up and introduce yourself, but whatever you do, don't walk in front of the projector beam. You know how I get.

Note to San Diego film historians: Part of Top Gun was filmed in Liberty Station and if this crowd’s reaction is anything like the one I screened it for last month in Oceanside, there is nothing like a hometown audience to help cheer on Tom and his flyboys.

And while we’re talking outdoor movies in San Diego, do you know that 2011 marks the 70th anniversary of Citizen Kane, which features numerous shots of our own Balboa Park doubling for CFK's Xanadu? Anyone out there interested in putting together a walking tour and outdoor screening of the greatest movie ever made?

Are you being sarcastic when you call Citizen Kane the greatest movie of all time? Isn't that just something people like to say in order to sound in-the-know? It's a good movie, maybe great. But THE greatest?

It contains elements of just about every genre there is, beat out "The Maltese Falcon" as the first film noir, is considered the first modern sound film, doesn't have one false frame in it, never gets old (and I've seen it well over 200 times), and has probably influenced more filmmakers than any hundred other films put together. I stand by my statement: "Citizen Kane" is the greatest film ever made. My personal favorite of Welles' films is "Touch of Evil," but nothing rivals the impact and vitality of "Kane."

And take it from one who has been there: I did the screening/walking tour while at MoPA and there is nothing quite as magical as exiting Xanadu to find it right there before you. Cost to put it on: Around a thousand bucks. Value: No man knows.

If you are coming for the cartoons and shorts, Nan, you will not be let down!